Birthdays, picnics, and Oktoberfest... in May

I had a really nice weekend. I know the weekend's been over for a few days, but nothing particularly interesting has happened since then, so I will write about the weekend. On Saturday night I went to the birthday party I mentioned before. A few of my friends were there and I also met some new people, so that was fun. The only thing I did not enjoy about that evening was this one really touchy-feely (sp?) guy. He seemed okay at first, but then just became plain old creepy and started hanging all over me and saying how if he didn't have a girlfriend he'd be kissing me... yuck, back off dude! Upon thinking more about that evening I'm somewhat annoyed with myself for not having actually told him to back off, but at the time I didn't want to cause any problems since he was friends with the birthday boy. I was fairly relieved when he moved on to some cute Japanese girl, though I felt a little bad because I think he was making her equally uncomfortable. Japanese people (not all of them, but the majority) don't tend to show much physical affection or expect any in return until they get to know you, but despite being here longer than me the guy seemed unaware of that fact. Everyone else at the party seemed pretty cool and a few of them want to come to my play, so I'm very happy about that! I crashed at Jenn's place for the night and then had rehearsal all day Sunday. We're all freaking out a bit because the show is on June 7 and 8 and it just hasn't come together the way it should have by now, there were cast members who weren't off book and the blocking is still not completely settled... but, I still think that we can pull it off if everyone puts in the effort that they should. One of my students is coming with her sister to see me perform and I think there might be other students who come too, in addition to my friends who I know are coming. I'm so excited that I have people here who want to come see me perform!

On Monday I met up with one of my castmates, Shinako, to practice the scenes we have together. We decided that since we were meeting in Hibiya Park we should also have a picnic. It was a gorgeous day and Hibiya Park is beautiful, so having a picnic was a fabulous idea. To make things even more amusing, in addition to our rehearsal, Oktoberfest was going on. I'm quite pleased with the fact that I can now say I celebrated Oktoberfest in May in Japan... there are very people who can lay claim to that interesting little tidbit. We sat by a big fountain and ate and talked for about two hours before we realized that we hadn't actually done any rehearsing! When we finally got around to practicing our scenes it was a little embarassing because people were walking by us the whole time, but we figured it was just as well since we're not going to have a test run with an actual audience. There's also this thing that a lot of Japanese people do, which Shinako even brought up, that makes things significantly more awkward. When something strange or embarassing happens most Japanese people will just pretend that nothing is going on. I'd say that the majority of people who walked by us just kept looking straight ahead or only peeked at us from the corner of their eye, which I think is rather different from most Americans who would probably stop and gawk, or laugh as they passed by. Jenn and I had previously discussed this obvious lack of reaction when Jenn told me how she accidentally set off a really loud alarm in a store and no one even looked at her, which only added to her embarassment. I still love being able to see all the cultural differences between Japan and America, it helps to make life continuously interesting even in what would usually be considered normal interactions or situations.

This week has been fairly average, the rainy season is beginning, and after that it will just be deathly hot. These next few months might be a bit more of a struggle for me, but I'll do my best to think happy thoughts and find the best in life, as I always strive to do!